


Teamwork Interludes

by Asuka Kureru (Askerian)



Series: Teamworkverse [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, F/M, Humor, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 16:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askerian/pseuds/Asuka%20Kureru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fallout from the end of Teamwork 2.</p><p>Rise<br/>Sakura POV, Tsunade interaction. Sakura grows. Gen.</p><p>House of Dogs<br/>Naruto POV, Inuzuka Tsume is a pitiless teacher. Humor.<br/>----> Gloves<br/>------ Short SasuSaku moment during Naruto's "House of Dogs" interlude.</p><p>Ghosts<br/>Sasuke POV, Sasuke remembers. Angst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"No visible sign of organ damage."

Tsunade steps away from the examination table, picks up a pen from her desk, and jots down a handful of quick observations. Her handwriting is crisp, fast, full of slashes. There's a wrinkle between her eyebrows, a tension in her jaws. Sakura waits. She heard the _'You got a lot more lucky than you deserved'_ that lays underneath just fine.

Tsunade spears her with a narrow-eyed look, and then ignores her again. There's disappointment in there, and Sakura wants to flinch, because she knows that Hokage-sama counted on her to be the most responsible of the three, the one who doesn't run off to do half-baked things.

It would probably be smart to keep quiet, at this point. But seeing Tsunade-sama so angry that she isn't even willing to look at Sakura more than necessary -- it hurts. Sakura doesn't know when she started to relax around the illustrious Godaime Hokage-sama, especially since she only got to be in the woman's company to make sure that the silly little girl who got in way over her head wouldn't become a danger to herself and to others; but losing her respect hurts.

"When should I come back for a check-up?"

"It won't be necessary."

Sakura is so stricken by Tsunade's dispassionate tone, she can't find the voice to question her.

"Jiraiya's fixes settled well. They'll hold. Kakashi will be monitoring your chakra levels; if there's trouble, he'll warn Jiraiya. You have the schedule for the following monthly check-ups."

Sakura would be expecting another lecture there; _'if you feel anything abnormal, warn us,' 'don't strain unless absolutely necessary, just in case.'_ But apparently, her common sense has definitely been put back on the questionable list.

Tsunade moves back behind her desk, sits down and takes a few more notes. It's a clear dismissal.

Sakura doesn't leave. Because if she leaves now she'll never find the nerve to come back.

"Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade frowns, surprised. Sakura doesn't allow herself to look away, meeting her eyes frankly. She can do it. She knows she can do it. She's not going to be afraid. She's got nothing to lose.

"Please train me."

She caught the woman by surprise; she can see Tsunade trying to make sense of that request. Good. That's an opening. A tiny one, but maybe it will be enough.

"It's not like you need help augmenting your chakra level anymore," the Hokage replies dryly.

Sakura shakes her head, still staring at her, clinging to her determination. She just can't back down now. "Of course I do."

Tsunade's brow wrinkles again; she leans back in her chair, an elbow on the desk; it's a _'You just won ten seconds of my attention, don't waste them'_ pose. Sakura doesn't plan to.

"That new chakra... It's not my strength. It's Naruto's." Sakura hesitates, looking for the right words. "The baby needs it. I need it. I don't want to die, so I'll take it. And if there's a mission and I'm in way over my head -- I'll take more. But it's not mine. It's -- it's cheating. And I'll cheat if I _have_ to, but -- I don't want to have to."

Tsunade's brow is still wrinkled, but she's listening.

"... I'm just sick of having to rely on them all the time, to -- to ride on their coattails, and lag behind all the time," Sakura admits softly, a hand rising to rub at her belly reflexively. "I want -- I _need_ to get stronger on my own. I hate that all this mess was necessary. There's just this ocean of raw chakra that burns me if I try to mold it, and if I do more than dip my toes, I'll end up bowled over. I can't _do_ anything with it; it's just Naruto saving me again because I can't do it myself. I'm not any stronger now than I was last week."

She looks down briefly, and then meets Tsunade's eyes again, pleading this time.

"You made me stronger. You taught me jutsu I'd never heard of, that Kakashi-sensei doesn't even know, that Shizune-san would never have taught me -- and I know it was only so I wouldn't burn out on all the endurance training, but it was the most difficult and _fascinating_ thing I ever learned, and -- I want to learn more. I really do."

Tsunade is still silent, still unmoving; Sakura's desperate hope wanes slowly.

"I know that you're very busy. I know that you only trained me because I needed help with my chakra levels -- and I'm not a genius or a chakra-monster by any means --" what she really thinks is that she's weak, and she dreamed too big when she took Tsunade's encouragements and pleased smiles to heart, when she thought that maybe she has what it takes to learn directly from the most powerful and skilled person in the village. "-- but I'd do my best. Even if I could just observe -- you wouldn't even have to teach me directly..."

Her voice dies. She's too close to begging, and that -- being taken in because Tsunade pities her and not because she has what it takes -- it would be even worse than being rejected.

Tsunade's frown smoothes out slightly; but her look isn't getting friendlier so much as clinical and remote. That's a no, then.

"What do you hope me to teach you?"

Sakura swallows past the knot in her throat, and gambles -- all or nothing. "Everything you know. Everything."

"Huh. Everything, really," Tsunade drawls. "You seem to have a high opinion of your abilities."

That wasn't a rebuttal. It was a challenge. Sakura squares her shoulders, daring to hope again. "I won't know if I can do it if I don't try my best. I know I'm not a powerhouse. I'm more suited to genjutsu -- to precise and -- you know, subtle things. I want to learn to use that to my best advantage. And medical jutsu... There's so many of them, and so many ways to use them. I want to get better in taijutsu too -- and you're the strongest fighter in the village." She hesitates, then, but only for a second. "I want to learn how the village works. How to deal with behind-the-scene influences."

She surprised Tsunade again, she can see it. The Hokage leans forward now, hands joined in front of her mouth to mask her expression. "Hmm. I didn't peg you as someone interested in intrigues."

Sakura dares a smile, a tiny one. "I'm not. But Naruto will never be subtle enough to notice anything until it jumps him, and he will never know any other approach to solve things than getting in people's face about it. And Sasuke -- he's subtle enough for politics, but he doesn't have the patience, and he'll hate it -- and I wouldn't be surprised if no one really trusts him. I want to learn to read the signs, so that we might at least be aware of what's going on. They will never be unimportant enough to evade all scrutiny."

Tsunade nods slowly. Sakura's smile widens a little.

"That's true... They have champions, though. You could trust them."

Sakura shakes her head slowly, still smiling. She can't express how grateful she is for the offer. Her voice turns soft; she lets it.

"I do trust you. But... I feel that we are behaving like children. Hiding behind the adults who deal with bad things on our behalf, and unaware of what's really at stake, and... It's unpleasant, but they're our problems. It's hard, to be patted on the head and told not to worry, that the adults will fix everything, when we're the ones who are really concerned -- the ones people are risking themselves for."

"... And you're not children anymore."

"No, we're not," Sakura agrees quietly.

Tsunade sighs, leans back in her chair, eyes closed, deep in thought.

"If you want to be trusted, you're going to have to stop pulling such stupid stunts behind our backs," she warns eventually, stern, almost grim.

Well, technically, Jiraiya and Kakashi were aware of it. Unofficially. But Sakura knows better than to point that out. She starts to smile a little wider. "Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"Tomorrow, at five sharp. Now get out."

A grin blossoming on her face, Sakura bows deep. "Yes, Tsunade-sama!"

She walks out briskly. She's never had such a hard time keeping herself from dancing.


	2. House of Dogs (Naruto)

Inuzuka Tsume is a scary-looking woman. A wild, choppy mess of hair, crazy-looking slit eyes with no visible irises, strong shoulders, claw-tipped hands with tendons and veins in sharp relief -- except for the fact that she has boobs, she looks like Kiba with lipstick.

It would be hilarious, if she wasn't terrifying. Naruto's pretty sure she wouldn't have much of a problem about going straight for his throat with nothing but her teeth. The way she rakes him with her eyes, missing nothing and finding everything wanting, the way she circles with her hands on her hips... And then there's her huge, scarred wolf-dog, who sits there, totally still, and waits for permission to eat him.

"Ma'am?" Naruto says, and laughs, a little nervously.

There's more silence as she straightens up. She's not tall, not really -- Naruto is taller than she is -- but, maybe it's the mane of wild hair, or the creepy eyes; he doesn't want to cross her anyway.

"Do you know what you're here for?" she rasps.

"Er, yeah? I've got problems with the bastard fox..."

She shakes her head, not quite like he's wrong, but like she didn't expect much and wasn't disappointed. "That's all they told you, huh?" The wolf-dog grunts, vaguely contemptuous; Tsume shifts her weight onto her other foot, crossing her arms over her stomach like she's getting ready for a long, boring talk. "Don't expect miracles, kid. I don't know who thought up that brilliant idea first, but I'm not going to be able to fix every single problem you've got."

Naruto scowls. "If you can't help me, then what am I doing here?"

"I didn't say I couldn't help at all. But I have no miracle cure. You're not an Inuzuka and we're not demon carriers. You've got issues I can do exactly jack shit about."

"Great," Naruto grumbles under his breath. "So I'm wasting my time, huh?"

The wolf-dog curls up his lip, flashing yellowed fangs at Naruto. "It's the other way around, punk."

Naruto jumps. "You talk? -- Hey! Don't call me that!"

He glares at the wolf, who gazes back lazily, like he's vaguely wondering which part of Naruto's body would be tastier. Inuzuka Tsume snorts. "You don't listen well, do you."

"I listen just fine!"

The woman sighs, arms unfolding, and in three long steps, she's in front of him, with her hand clamped on the back of his neck to pull him down to her level. Meep.

"Don't make me shake you. What are you, a puppy?"

"... 'm not," Naruto grumbles, avoiding her eyes. She lets him go; he straightens up, disgruntled, and glares at her stubbornly.

"Good. I'm past the age to housebreak them." She gives him an amused look, not impressed by his attitude at all; Naruto sighs and relaxes a little, though he's still tempted to sulk. "Now I said I couldn't fix everything, but there are still tricks you ought to learn anyway. Come on."

The wolf on her heels, she strides toward the side of the house; there's a path between the wall and the fence, with a training field behind.

"The report says you get claws. You'll learn to use them right. Sense of smell as well. How's your night vision?"

Naruto scrambles to follow. "Um, okay? I get by. What do you mean use them right? It's not hard. Pointy end goes into people? Just like a kunai."

She snorts, smirks. "Not really, no. For one thing, you can't have it knocked out of your hand."

"Yeah, but you can't throw it either."

"There are advantages and inconveniences to both. As there are to sense of smell, hearing, night vision, detection of quick movements, sense of balance, etcetera. You'll learn how to use all of those properly, and how to know when it's better not to."

"Okay," Naruto says, and thinks privately that it doesn't sound as immensely useful as he hoped for, but hey, as long as it keeps the Council happy. At least it's not gonna be too hard, right?

  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
As it turns out, he's wrong. And the Council isn't the only one who gets to feel like it's doing something for Naruto's little problem.   
After Kyuubi's latest stunt, Naruto is perfectly happy to keep the bastard fox locked up in the darkest, dankest corner of his inner world for the next century, but...

"How are you supposed to learn anything about something you pretend doesn't exist?"

Damn Tsume for making sense. So she makes him drag out the red chakra, just like Jiraiya did, and then she makes him manipulate it -- he's never done anything so hard and tedious since he learned to tree-walk.

He learns -- tries to learn -- to pull it to his nose in a handful of seconds, to heighten his sense of smell; she makes him track things across the field, and if he steps out of the path his target took, or even just if she feels like it, she throws stinking things at him. Vinegar, bleach, horse manure, moldy cheese; she says it's so he learns to turn off his sense of smell quickly, in case it's ever targeted, but he really thinks she's just that evil. Maybe she's taking revenge for that fart in Kiba's face six years ago.

He tries to learn to pull the red chakra to his hands, his feet, but to keep it inside his skin, change his flesh to fit it instead of letting it bubble over. He started out needing at least five minutes to grow full claws, and one time he got real frustrated and his arms got kind of furry, but now he goes from blunt nails to talons in under thirty-five seconds, and it's not awesome, but it's the best he can do. Sometimes the skin on the underside of his fingers and the heel of his hands hardens, too, and he can see it makes Tsume frown, but he thinks his control is already fine enough and he's not going to bother working on narrowing the affected area; it's easier to lean on his hands with pads, and anyway his calluses were almost just as thick already.

Tsume doesn't give a damn that sometimes his mind gets kind of hazy. He's got to do the drills anyway -- claws in! Claws out! Night vision! Nose! Let go! And if he gets angry, even black Kyuubi-rage, she just grabs him by the back of the neck and shakes him out of it.

In matters of chakra level, Naruto is stronger than she is. He's faster, too. Yet he still hasn't managed to dodge her neck-grab-and-shake trick even once. He thinks it might be a secret mom power.

As for the animal instincts that come sometimes, Tsume says she can't do much -- it's not a jutsu you learn, it's an ingrained habit that the members of your pack teach you -- but the first time Naruto tries to sniff Inuzuka Hana's crotch, he ends up kicked clear across the field and chased through half of Konoha by three snarling dogs; after that, fox-hazy or not, there is no second try.

Sadly, his chakra-manipulating skills don't progress as well as his socialization; so one morning he arrives at the Inuzuka's, and Tsume is grinning. He almost starts running the other way.

"I asked Hatake for advice," she says, and Naruto does start moving the other way, except her black wolf-dog is standing in his way.

They herd him down the road, right outside the village. Tsume is whistling, and Kuromaru's tail wags. Naruto is mildly terrified.

She unlocks one of the gates into the Forest of Death, gesturing at Naruto to get in first, and then when he trustingly walks in, she locks the gate behind him.

"I hid three things in this forest, kid. Find them and bring them back, and you pass."

Naruto relaxes enough to grin. He's survived the Forest a couple of times now. It will be fine. Go in, track her scent, get out. Easy as pie. "What do I gotta find?"

"Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?"

And then she walks away, leaving Naruto behind the fence.

"Hey, no fair! At least give me a clue!"

Tsume laughs, rough and low, and her dog's tongue lolls out of his mouth. "No clue. But I'll give you a tip, pup. There are many creatures born in this season." She pauses, smirks thinly over her shoulder. "Oh, and don't worry for your teammates, I'll tell them not to fret for at least a week."

Naruto has the strong feeling that he's going to die.

  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
By "many creatures born this season," Tsume apparently didn't mean cute little fawns and bunnies. She meant baby giant tigers -- which means their mother is out hunting.   
She also meant giant centipedes, and blood-drinking wasps, and a bazillion metric fucktons of snakes.

He spends his first night running from tigers, and his morning pulling leeches from his legs. Next time mommy tiger comes after him, fuck the adorable giant kittens. He only finds fruit to eat, and ends up with a mild case of the runs. By mid-afternoon, it starts drizzling.

He trips on his first item -- an empty kunai pouch -- while busy swearing up a storm about the scent trail being erased by the water.

The second day, nothing, apart from an impressive nest of snakes. The half-erased scent trail he finds turns out to belong to some Inuzuka cousin or other -- the dog is female -- and -- it takes him a while to find a dry patch of grass to compare -- to be at least a week old beside.

After the fifth time the swarm of humongous spider-bees come after him, he learns to stop wasting his chakra with tree-sticking. The bitches feed on it; it's like broadcasting offers for an all-you-can-eat free buffet in Chouji's neighborhood. At least, the claws make for nice traction even on the wet bark, and he thinks he'll even learn to switch directions faster once he gets over his wondering what happens if his claws get stuck in the wood. He tore off nails before and, well, there's a reason it's a form of torture.

The second night, he gets some sleep all the way up in a tree. It's barely dawn when a vulture pecks him awake, mistaking him for a corpse with yummy fresh eyes. At least Naruto has a nice breakfast, even if the grilled chicken is a little gamey.

The third day, he decides to get fish. The decision comes to him after he jumps in the water to get the infestation of fire ants out of his clothes, but hey, no need to waste such an occasion.

The fourth day he starts getting a little better at sharing his attention between the trail he's following and the predators following him, and so when the fangy monkeys try it, he's ready to kick ass. He finds the second item hidden in an eagle's nest; getting the parents away long enough to get to it while keeping his eyes unpecked needs some creative use of Kage Bunshin, but he's pretty alright with that part. Pulling the old dog collar free from the nest without breaking the eggs is something else. Surely eagles can't count anyway.

The fifth day, nothing. The track doubles back almost every ten seconds and crosses the river a dozen times, or maybe he's losing count because he can't keep track of which end goes in which direction anymore. In the end he has to step back and circle the area as widely as he can to find the track again. By now, it's starting to fade, so he keeps going even when it gets dark.

Getting whipped in the face by vines that might actually be snakes or strange man-eating flowers is good incentive to learn to activate his senses of sight and smell in tandem, but in the end, the trail stops at a pond and nothing he does helps him find it again. He has a small screaming fit that frightens his corner of the forest into complete silence for at least ten minutes, which is creepy enough to calm him down.

The sixth day is better left unmentioned.

The seventh day, he braves the leeches in the pond, to make sure that the item he's looking for just didn't fall in from some overhead branch. It didn't. But there's a tunnel under the slimy surface and prickly plants that wasn't dug out by a beaver.

The item is a little plastic tube with a note on it. The note says "Good job! Now inject the antidote before the poisonous algae does you in."

Naruto starts to laugh, vowing to kill Inuzuka Tsume the second he's safely back out of that goddamn forest.

At least the trip out goes faster than the trip in, though still slowly enough that he has some time to notice everything he learned to do. Pop out the claws in five seconds or less, switch from scent to night eyesight and then back, hold onto both together, learn to track properly...

Sure, he kind of used almost all of what she taught him before, instinctually. But sometimes -- when he was angry -- the Kyuubi-influenced stuff was easy; sometimes it didn't even come to mind as a possibility. Now he doubts he'll ever forget he can do all that. And the more tightly he controls where the chakra goes and how much of it he uses, the fewer headaches he gets, and that's worth the whole training by itself.

She's waiting when he reaches the gate. He howls an incoherent threat at her, but he's so tired it comes off as some kind of dying moo.

"... 'm done. Tell me it was all Kakashi's fault."

Tsume chuckles softly. "Not really. It's an old method of nin-dog training."

Naruto gave her an incredulous look. "You're training me like you would a _dog_?"

Kuromaru snorts. "If by dog you mean a _puppy_."

Naruto utters a short, shrill scream of frustration, grabbing his hair with both hands. "Here are your stupid items, now get me out of here!" He's famished, he stinks to high heaven, he's bruised all over and his clothes are ruined. If she doesn't approve, they're going to have words.

"Good!" she grunts.

Naruto feels like melting in relief and taking a nap on the spot. He grins, proud and exhausted.

She grins back.

"Now you're ready to do it with a blindfold."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm home!"
> 
> Sakura waits. Silence.
> 
> Naruto isn't going to be here to slump on and gripe about her bruises and her scraped knuckles, she knows that -- Inuzuka Tsume requested a full week of his time, for proper training. Sakura didn't miss him the first few days; it's a lot easier to study when he isn't begging for love. As for Sasuke... Sometimes, reading side by side in silence, drinking the tea he makes for her, is enough. Today, she feels a little lonely.
> 
> The living room is full of unsorted clutter; the rest of the house is empty, still a little dusty. They're camping; it's not home yet. There's a small box on the coffee table, where she dumped the medical scrolls she is to read for tomorrow. It has no name on it, but it's at her usual place, meticulously parallel to the edge of the table.
> 
> She picks it up, blinks at it.
> 
> "Open it."
> 
> Sasuke is standing in the connecting door to the dojo. She reddens; at first it feels like getting caught snooping, and then it's a flush of pleasure as she realizes the package really is for her, from him.
> 
> He half-turns away just as the small bundle of black cloth falls out, across her palm.
> 
> He bought her gloves.
> 
> They're tough but not stiff, padded in all the right places, obvious quality. Sasuke is waiting, eyes bored, tilt of the head vaguely challenging, like he doesn't care. Like he didn't go out of his way to get them for her.
> 
> She doesn't know what to say, but then he doesn't let her say anything. "You'll tell me how they fit," he throws over his shoulder, and he leaves.
> 
> They fit perfectly; and the next day, when she flips and skids over jagged rocks as Tsunade throws her around, and punches that tree trunk fifty times in a row, for once Sakura's hands don't smart that badly.


	3. Ghosts (Sasuke)

There are no ghosts in this house. None of his, at any rate. There's Uchiha Hideyoshi; Uchiha Minako; Shin; Isamu; Kaede.

To him, nothing but names on paper.

He cannot tell if they would have begrudged his use of their home. They're smiling in most of the pictures he found, in the ones he placed on the small family shrine; so he tells himself they wouldn't have -- too much -- and goes about his day.

It would be easier to live with if he didn't have to cross half the Uchiha district every time he wants to leave the house. The first street is fine; he never used to explore this boring side of the district much. At the corner is an old well, with stone benches in a half-circle around. When the benches weren't taken over by crabby old people, he used to climb at the end of the first and leaped his way across.

Next is the street where the ice cream man had his stand. The garden with the huge dog. His mother's best friend's house. A tiny square with bushes that children pretended were perfect hiding places; they're overgrown enough to make their own jungle, now, except that half are withered.

Depending on which gate to the rest of the village he wishes to use, he can either walk past the piece of Uchiha training grounds that Itachi claimed as his own and the lake where Sasuke practiced Katon, or the charred remnants of his home. Most of the time, it's more practical to walk by his home.

Sakura has developed an inordinate fondness for a kind of sweets she says she can find nowhere but in the other direction. Naruto teases her about her hips; Sakura hits him, and says he deserves it for getting between a pregnant woman and her cravings.

They're so see-through it almost hurts, but acknowledging it would mean acknowledging they see through him as well. So he forks over the money for Sakura's sweets in silence, and doesn't elbow Naruto too hard when he leans over Sasuke's shoulder to steal from the bag.

Sasuke doesn't know what his ghosts would say about his two lovers and their bizarre, immoral arrangement.

So in the evenings, when all the training of the day is done, when Naruto is off with Iruka or Jiraiya or Kiba or whoever else, and Sakura is off with Ino, or her parents, Sasuke sits in front of his unknown cousins' little shrine and wonders about his own parents.

It isn't something he does often, thinking about his parents. It's hard to remember them without remembering how they were taken away, and then his focus shifts onto revenge, not remembrance. And he still needs to avenge them. It burns deep inside; he doesn't think it's ever going to stop. But he cannot give in to murderous, blind rages when he's faced with the picture of that black-haired, happy family. Hideyoshi; Minako; Shin; Isamu; Kaede.

If his parents had lived...

His father... A proud man, respectful of traditions, but not one who let rumors cow him either. Sasuke knows he would have disapproved of Team Seven's arrangement -- wouldn't have opposed Sasuke marrying outside the clan, but wouldn't have liked the fact that they don't even know who the father of the child is. He might even have looked down on Sakura for that, even though it wasn't her fault... No. No. Sasuke doesn't like to think that. His father was a just man.

Hopefully he wouldn't have begrudged Sasuke's friendship with Naruto, but he would never have wanted to hear about anything more than that. As long as Sasuke was married and had children, as long as he did his duty to the bloodline, his father probably would have pretended that any male lovers Sasuke had didn't exist. Not that Sasuke would have ever wanted to tell his father about any of that, so it would have been all right if he didn't want to know.

His mother... Sweet, caring, perpetually smiling. She would have been concerned -- probably for the same reasons Sakura's mother is so worried. She would have been sad about the way people might shun them...

And if they were still here to worry about, Sasuke might consider asking Naruto to never be more than their secret lover, the ex-teammate they happen to still be on good terms with, just for his mother not to be shunned because of him, just for his father not to lose face.

The point is moot anyway. Sasuke doesn't have to make this decision.

The thought of denying Naruto's importance to protect his reputation, of all things, makes him want to growl. He doesn't like the idea of letting outsiders know anything about his personal feelings, but if there is one thing that could prompt him to forego his pride and go along with public displays of affection, it's spite.

Only consideration for the feelings of his precious people places higher; but his parents are beyond that -- what does it matter if their second son has loose morals, compared to the fact that he betrayed Konoha, that he feels nothing at the thought of betraying it again, that if he still could, he'd leave again in a heartbeat.

Ultimately, his parents aren't here, and cannot judge what his life has become. If they were here -- even if the rest of the clan wasn't -- his life would be so different he doubts he would recognize himself; but they aren't, and torturing himself with what-ifs is a waste of time. He'll have to keep living with the thought that on this, at least, he would disappoint them. There are so many other things -- so much more important -- abandoned Konoha, tarnished the name of the Uchiha clan, came at his teammate and friend with the intent to kill -- for which he knows he would not get their forgiveness.

Of the four people whose opinion still matters to him, only Sakura and the child would be embarrassed, and even then it depends how and when the rumor spreads. Naruto would laugh and brag if people asked him the truth about their sentimental arrangement, and nothing fazes Kakashi.

His mother might have accepted them, though. As long as her son was happy.

Overall, he's not really happy; but that's nothing out of the ordinary. There are still problems to fix and jutsu to learn and progress to make and his brother to kill.

He's not happy often, but Naruto and Sakura help him not to be down or angry all the time either. He doesn't need them; he could do without them. But they're here and they're not going to let him go, and now, with the child, he can't let them go either. Even if it's not his. There are people who would love to get their hands on the Kyuubi's carrier's spawn. He'll kill them first, if Naruto doesn't.

Sakura smiles more these days; sometimes Sasuke catches himself smiling back. Naruto is insatiable in bed. Or out of bed. Everywhere.

The thought of losing his teammates makes him sick.

He shouldn't have stayed, after Naruto stopped him at the waterfall. He should have escaped from the hospital the second he could walk again. They're chaining him to them, to this village. They're dulling his resolve. They're not letting him hate enough.

Sasuke lives in terror of the day Itachi will fix that mistake for him.

He knows it will be enough; it will be the one thing he's still missing. If Itachi kills them, Sasuke will kill Itachi, no ifs or buts, no "not strong enough yet," no fancy tricks needed. He's sure of it -- sure that that's the only guaranteed method. If Sakura and Naruto die, then Itachi will die too.

And then Sasuke will follow.

He can't take it a second time.

He used to be unable to enjoy his present because his dreams were in his past; now he can't enjoy it because his future holds nightmares. He hates his teammates a little, he thinks. His goal wasn't so impossible when he had nothing left to lose.

He never should have let them worm their way in. The only way to keep them safe would have been to cut them out. But it's too late for that. They're targets, now. Leaving won't protect anyone anymore.

And so he sits in front of the shrine, and watches the incense sticks burn from tip to bottom. Those cousins he never knew smile at him from the picture, frozen and so far away he feels sometimes they have never been real, have never existed. Just like the boy he was, before his world was destroyed. Just like his family, with his strong father and gentle mother, and that big brother he loved, for and despite everything he was.

He wishes the child could have known his grandparents.


End file.
